Australian Immigration Daily News

Migration Alliance was represented by Mayanne Young, Michael Jeremy and me this morning at the last NSW Client Reference Group (CRG) meeting for 2013.The meeting was held at 9:30am-12:00pm in the DIBP Conference Room, Level 5, Tower C, 300 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

The following are the notes I took from the meeting:

Welcome - Chair - Kruno Kukoc - NSW State Director, Director of Refugee and Humanitarian and Family Visas - DIBP

There has been a new government since September and with that two new Ministers have come on:

a)Scott Morrison - Minister for Immigration and Border Protection; and

b) Michaelia Cash - Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, and Women's Issues for the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott

Both Ministers have been hosted in the NSW State office of the DIBP and it was the first of all the state offices that the Ministers attended.  They also attended the airport in Sydney and Lee Street.  Scott Morrison also attended the Migration Programme Consultation in the NSW Office a few weeks back.

The Multicultural and Settlement Affairs component of the old immigration portfolio has gone across to the Department of Social Services.  The current Immigration portfolio has gained the customs component which is why the new portfolio is called 'Dept Immigration and Border Protection'.

On that note, Operation Soverign Borders was a key election initiative. 

There have also been a few recent executive changes:

1. State Director is now Kruno Kukoc

2. Stephen Wood is is leaving the Office of the MARA and going into strategy and innovation in Canberra

3. Steve Ingram is coming on as the new CEO of the Office of the MARA to replace Stephen Wood

4. Mary-Anne Jones is taking over Status Resolution Services from Steve Ingram

DIBP Annual Report

The DIBP processed and approved 190,000 skilled and family visas in the last programme year which is the best performance of any of the programme years to date.  The DIBP granted over 20,000+ refugee and humanitarian visas.  There was also a historical high number of temporary visas approved such as 457 and visitor visas.  There were 500,000 Australian citizenship certificates delivered last year.

Updates:

28 October - Legislative Change in ENS and RSMS -  Skills assessments used for subclass 485 visa applications are no longer able to be used for the permanent stage visas.  New seperate skills assessments need to be used /completed for ENS and RSMS.

457 - Processing changes - Parramatta - processing to go to the mailbox with the words 'URGENT PRIORITY PROCESSING' in the subject

Student Visas - The DIBP is looking to streamling and simplify the student visa applicatibon process.  Scott Morrison and Christopher Pyne have made changes together on this one.  The main changes are that non-university providers will be included in streamlined processing.  There is a deregulation process happening, especially amongst Levels 4 and 5 and the reduction of red tape.

English Language Testing Removed for RMAs - (hooray)

Family Visas - The first partner visa was granted yesterday through the new ImmiAccount online.

Refugee and Humaniatrian - Since operation Soverign Borders started and from 18 October 2013, 22 Temporary Protection Visas have been granted.  TPV's have been disallowed in the Senate which has led to the government decision to cap all protection visas onshore.  The quota of 1650 visas granted onshore has already been reached.  This was the only legislative instrument it had at it's disposal.  Yesterday the government released new protection visas regulations which means you will no longer be able to be granted a protection visa (NB Notes not complete here).  A Migration Amendment Bill passed through Parliament yesterday as well.

A total of 3858 offshore protection visas were granted as follows:

11% from Africa

36% from the Middle East

52.4 from Asia

0.8% from a global contingency

In late January 2014 there will be a discussion group on humanitarian and refugee visas.

Student Visa Integrity -  The DIBP is moving to a more intelligent system of integrity checking in the student visa regime.  It will become more about risks and the priority of risks rather than going across the board and choking up the system.  There is a process of deregulation (agenda) and streamlining.  The government wants fast visa processing.